Now thanks in part to Jason Wirth and his Seattle University Eco-Sangha, Andrew Schelling is coming to Cascadia and will participate in several events, some of which are connected to his brilliant new biography of Jaime de Angulo:

Jaime de Angulo’s linguistic and ethnographic work, his writings, as well as the legends that cloak the Old Coyote himself, vividly reflect the particulars of the Pacific coast. His poetry and prose uniquely represented the bohemian sensibility of the twenties, thirties and forties, and he was known for his reworkings of coyote tales and shamanic mysticism. So vivid was his writing that Ezra Pound called him “the American Ovid,” and William Carlos Williams claimed that de Angulo was “one of the most outstanding writers I have ever encountered.”

Monday, February 26, Seattle U Student Center Room 130, 7:30pm, Seattle U Eco-Sangha, Andrew Schelling will read some of his poems as well as discuss the relationship between poetry and Buddhist practice.

Since meeting Andrew in 1997, I have written over 6,000 American Sentences and at least 99 haibun, so you can imagine the joy I will have at presenting this man, his fine intellect, his poetry knowledge and his new work on a talent deserving wider recognition, Jaime de Angulo. Please consider attending one (or more) of these events.

Jack and Adelle Foley are poets from Oakland, California, who performed at the 3rd annual Super Bowl of Poetry at the Northwest SPokenword LAB in Auburn, Washington, in February 2000. It was one of the most intelligent and dynamic performances SPLAB has ever hosted. Jack is a widely published poet, critic, essayist and radio host, and Adelle an economist and writer of haiku. They discussed their early interest in poetry (Jack mentions Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard), their collaboration and their notions of the transcendent properties of poetry, especially in performance. Part 1 (7:55)

In segment two they performed Overture, the first of the choral pieces Jack wrote specifically for performance with Adelle and inspired by Charles Ives, Vachel Lindsay, Antonin Artaud, among others. In the discussion after the performance, Jack quotes Jake Berry who said of their choral work “the reader is seduced into the knowing participation in chaos.” Part 2 (8:19)

In segment three Jack discussed the Current State of Poetry as he sees it; the tension created by uneasy multimedia alliance of poetry’s early roots as a sound medium and the written aspect of poetry and Adelle performed a haiku sequence Bart Bench Haiku. Part 3 (4:59)

In part 4 the discussion centered around an invocation of the ancient Irish Goddess of poetry, Brigid, as part of a workshop facilitated at the old Northwest SPokenword LAB in February 2000. Part of the practice was creating a space to allow for the expression of oppositions in a peaceful context. Jack also discussed his book Exiles, the notion of poets as exiles and the importance of writers, especially young writers to find a sense of community (polis) in part through culture. Part 4 (11:12)

In the final segment, they performed the conclusion of the poem Chorus/Song, dedicated to Jake Berry, discussed Charles Olson’s Projective Verse, read more haiku (Childhood Summers) and performed a final song. Part 5 (11:54)